Presiding Officer Judy Jacobs told the audience in her induction address that things will change. The important thing was, "To involve citizens in their own government. To facilitate that, the first thing they would do was to adopt new rules to give the public greater insights on what the Legislature is doing and why it is doing it," she said.

"It is our hope and goal to promote a more open exchange of views and information between the County Legislature and the residents of Nassau County with these changes. We are concerned about getting this county's fiscal house in order and an important part of doing that will be to make sure our actions are built on a firm foundation of open and common sense rules."

The new rules will give the public "Greater and more convenient opportunities to be heard at the Legislature."

Attending meetings of the Legislature was the message Ms. Jacobs delivered at the Boys & Girls Club of Oyster Bay-East Norwich at the forum provided by the first lady Hilary Clinton's forum on children and violence. "You should make it your job to come to legislative meetings," said Ms. Jacobs. "You know what you want from government." The county's priorities had been waylaid and valid input from residents was needed, she said.

To make that happen, the new "Open and Honest Government" reforms include: a pre-calendar period of up to 30 minutes (in addition to the current post calendar public comment period); they will allow public comments to be made at committee meetings; there will be an immediate explanation for tabled items; electronic notice of meetings; and summaries - in easy to understand language of legislation - will be available at NC public libraries.

During her speech, she said, in spite of the costs of government, "Rushing to destroy human service programs that address the real needs of real people will never result in those needs nor those people disappearing.

"You can't terminate programs for our youth, our mentally ill, and our indigent and not expect that it will come back to haunt us and to cost us more in the long run - not to mention the need for all of us to be able to look at ourselves in the mirror every night," she said.

She said they will be looking at the budget with "multi-faceted and multi-year strategic planning to bring us back to fiscal sanity."

Attending the Legislature induction at Nassau Community College was Mike Deering, spokesperson for Assemblyman DiNapoli.

He said, "There is a new energy in Nassau County government: a refreshing air for the beginning of a true two-party system of government - a bipartisan government.

"That was shown in the speeches made by NYS Comptroller Carl McCall; Attorney General Elliot Spitzer; Senator Chuck Schumer; Congressman Peter King - to the new majority leader, Judy Jacobs and the minority leader, Peter Schmitt. There was a sense that all efforts will be made to open up the government to the public and to reach out across the aisle to solve the tremendous problem facing the county today," said Mr. Deering.